The World

The yearlong coal strike swelled Britain's budget deficit in the current fiscal year by $3.13 billion, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson said as he presented the annual budget. Giving the first official estimate of the cost of the miners' strike, which ended March 5, Lawson said the deficit he originally projected at $8.3 billion will now total more than $11 billion. The new 1985-86 budget of $146 billion is expected to again reflect the tight-money policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's previous six years.